Can a Keyboard Make or Break Your Productivity?

[turbo]

Where is my new keyboard?

I can't stand waiting! If I tried to write code on this worthless POS Dell keyboard, I would have been out of work. Can a keyboard be the difference between "fat and happy" and struggling? If input matters, yes.

 

[dlgoff]

It could be worse.

[PLAIN]http://theofficemaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/super-tiny-keyboard-1.jpg

 

[FlexGunship]

I can't stand waiting! If I tried to write code on this worthless POS Dell keyboard, I would have been out of work. Can a keyboard be the difference between "fat and happy" and struggling? If input matters, yes.

Could be WAAAYYYYY worse:

 

[turbo]

Could be WAAAYYYYY worse:

Wow! Flex, I'd have to kill myself.

 

[AlephZero]

You're not in a minority of one. I'm typing this on a keyboard that dates from the 1980s. Judging by the collection of stickers on the back, it was originally made in Singapore for a Australian PC manufacturer. I've no idea how it got to the UK. I got it more or less free, with a collecton of other second-hand computer bits and pieces. It's not quite as good as a proper IBM "clicky" keyboard, but it feels nicer than modern junk.

I keep meaning to rewire the old IBM-PC-style connector so I don't have to use an adapter (which is big and heavy enough to be a hazard to wimpy modern PC motherboards) but that's always a job for "next month". If PS2 sockets go extinct, I'll have to find another solution anyway...

 

[turbo]

Thanks, Aleph. I HATE these mass-produced crap keyboards with their bubble-switch mechanics. There is no tactile feedback at all, and if you have arthritic joints, it's a pain to push each key through full excursion to make sure each character registers. I want my keyboard now!

 

[Evo]

I'm confused, are you getting one of those keyboards where the key barely moves? That's what I call no tactile feedback, I have one of those in my closet.

My new keyboard is very easy to type on, but the keys go all the way down, but with very little pressure, but you get that "tactile" feel.

 

[FlexGunship]

There's actually a lot about this topic.

http://www.overclock.net/t/491752/mechanical-keyboard-guide#post6009482

[PLAIN]http://www.overclock.net/image/id/481510/width/525/height/525/flags/LL[ATTACH=full]197190[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]197191[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]197192[/ATTACH]

 

[turbo]

The keyboard that I ordered is one of these.

http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/onthestick.html

The keys have a good deal of travel, but have a tactile "click" when they engage, so you don't have to press down any further. I hate the "modern" keyboards with their chicklet keys and no key-travel. It feels like trying to type on a table-top.

When I was a chemist, our department secretary (with LONG nails) could type 120+ WPM on her IBM Selectronic. That's the feel that I want to get back. I can race along on a decent keyboard, but the ones that ship with today's computers stink.

 

[dlgoff]

Have you considered adding something like http://www.windows7download.com/win7-jingle-keyboard/nwnqnsvy.html" which is Windows 7 compatible?

Jingle Keyboard is a unique novelty desktop program that can make your typing sound like a real typewriter (for those of us who remember REAL typewriters). The program is a simple install that that runs in the task tray, and with a single left-click toggles on or off. A right-click on the tray icon pops up a menu. Choosing the options interface shows a tabbed dialog box where preferences can be customized. In addition to typing and carriage returns, Jingle Keyboard also let's users assign sounds to the Esc and function keys, and even to mouse clicks. Users can choose from different sound schemes, including skirmish (little bangs and booms like gunfire) and bird singing. And now the program is free!

Personally, I like these Dell keyboards. They have enough feel for me, but I remember how the sound of the old http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter" .

 

[Pythagorean]

Whenever I start whining about my keyboard, my wifette reminds me to clip my nails.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I purchased one of these some time ago. Simply the best keyboard I have ever owned.
http://www.daskeyboard.com/

You can find them on amazon (Use the pf link to make Greg happy) for about 100 usd and you can get them to make clicking sounds like the old IBM keys, soft, or even silent. I use a non printed one, but at first I wish I got the one with the letters. I do type much faster now though.

 

[turbo]

I purchased one of these some time ago. Simply the best keyboard I have ever owned.
http://www.daskeyboard.com/

You can find them on amazon (Use the pf link to make Greg happy) for about 100 usd and you can get them to make clicking sounds like the old IBM keys, soft, or even silent. I use a non printed one, but at first I wish I got the one with the letters. I do type much faster now though.

Not bad, QC, though I'd prefer to have the printed keys so I can locate little-used characters more quickly. I learned how to touch-type in HS so that I would be able to type my own essays and term papers when I got to college without having to pay someone else to do it. By the time I graduated HS, I had saved up enough money for a decent portable electric typewriter (over and above the money that I had to have saved up for tuition and books.)

 

[Pythagorean]

I want a blank keyboard to train myself up. I mean, I can imagine... if I i started labeling the notes on the fretboard of one of my stringed instruments, my playing would be a mess. Lot's of unnecessary information tied to arbitrary symbols.

You're essentially cutting out the middle man in the processing stream when you take the letters off your keyboard.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I purchased one of these some time ago. Simply the best keyboard I have ever owned.
http://www.daskeyboard.com/

You can find them on amazon (Use the pf link to make Greg happy) for about 100 usd and you can get them to make clicking sounds like the old IBM keys, soft, or even silent. I use a non printed one, but at first I wish I got the one with the letters. I do type much faster now though.

This is what I have as well. I got the "silent" version with printed keys. "Silent" is relative, but actually I don't find it to be any louder than other keyboards.

It really is an amazing keyboard. I find it motivates me to get physics work done, because I actually want to have an excuse to sit down and type.

 

[S_Happens]

Ignorance is bliss I guess.

I can, and do, type just fine on most everything including the cheap dell keyboards on campus that always manage to have one of the adjustment tabs broken off. OK, those really are terrible even when not broken, but I enjoy my simple Logitech Wave keyboard at home. I can type between 90-100 wpm. What am I missing out on?

 

[turbo]

My new keyboard is here, and it is wonderful. My arthritis is acting up a bit today, so it's nice to have a keyboard with tactile feedback (no need to press the keys down as far as the Dell keyboards).

 

[dlgoff]

My new keyboard is here, and it is wonderful. My arthritis is acting up a bit today, so it's nice to have a keyboard with tactile feedback (no need to press the keys down as far as the Dell keyboards).

Have you checked out some of Windows 7s Speech Recognition software? It might cut down on some key strokes.

 

[turbo]

I don't mind typing if I have a decent keyboard. I haven't tried any speech recognition software since Dragon Speaking Naturally. The saleswoman was very good, and the head of an appraisal business paid me to attend her demo. She read a script from a sheet, and the software did a very good job, with few errors. The owner of the shop was pretty impressed until I handed the saleswoman a letter of appraisal and asked her to read that into the machine. The software failed horribly, and she had to keep backing up and making corrections. She didn't leave in tears, but I felt she was close. She must have spent many hours "training" that software with that script.

No sale! Dragon was quite expensive, but Les thought that if he got that software, he could take some of the transcription load off his assistant. He had added two new residential real-estate appraisers, and they were cranking out the work and burying his assistant. He didn't care about paying all the overtime - he just didn't want to burn her out with stress.

Years later, I worked for a guy who talked like Mrs. Malaprop, and I tried to talk him out of buying Dragon. He wouldn't listen. Money wasted. Dragon has come 'way down in price by now, but I have never been impressed by it.

 

[Proton Soup]

my logitech wireless is actually kind of decent. long battery life, too.

 

[turbo]

I'm old-school with keyboards. I loved the old AT keyboards from IBM. This new 'board is a bit "looser" in feel, but still a huge improvement over the crap that Dell ships, and a reasonable approximation of the old IBM ones. My last Dell keyboard was pretty bad, and the one that came with my newest Dell is just horrible. Hardly any key-travel, and you have to push each key all the way down to get a character to register. That gets real old real fast when you have arthritis in your knuckles, plus always having to proof and re-proof everything... Now I can touch-type, scan the text real quick and post it.

 

[turbo]

Still loving the keyboard! It's a bit more "clacky" than the old AT keyboards, but it doesn't feel cheap. I kept my last PC for about 8 years, so paying ~$80 for a decent keyboard doesn't seem like such a bad deal prorated over that kind of lifetime. Eventually, you can get to a point at which spending a few extra bucks just makes sense. My arthritic joints are not going to magically get better, and I can type along on this 'board at a pretty good clip.